The new Ambiance was open seven days a week and brought a strong customer base to the downtown area, which was starving for specialty shops. Quirky, eccentric and free-spirited, Callies was able to let her personality shine through in the ever-changing designs that drew people to her storefront.
In addition to running the store, Callies continued her love for interior design, decorating between 200 and 300 homes a year—and all through word-of-mouth. She prided herself on her ability to make people feel comfortable and on her talent to empower others to use their own supplies and skills.
Photo by: Kelly Ottesen Photography
“When I do someone’s home, I’ve changed their lives. They love their houses,” Callies says. “And it’s not because I bought all new. It’s because I made it work for them.”
On top of her growing business ventures, Callies worked to foster positive connections with other downtown storeowners, following the philosophy that individual success is dependent on the success of the group. From baking a weekly batch of cookies for the UPS man to introducing herself to tattoo parlor and knife shop owners, Callies did everything she could to establish relationships with those who lived and worked downtown.
“A lot of people credit my mom that Ambiance was an anchor store for downtown and that she started to really make downtown a destination,” says daughter Andrea Poukey, who graduated high school early and started Ambiance with Callies.
The store continued to bring new life to La Crosse for more than 12 years. But after she faced two strokes in seven months, Callies’ doctor and husband told her the last thing she wanted to hear. It was time to shut down Ambiance. Although she fully understood the necessities of the decision, Callies couldn’t help but feel blindsided.
“I didn’t even know I was stressed because I just work at that pace, and it’s just something I do,” says Callies, who looked at the store as a vital component of her life. “I would change the store at night in my pajamas ‘til midnight. I had dye in my hair, and I was down there changing things.”
Kick Makes the Move
Callies was left with the task of deciding what to do with the first floor of her beloved building. For more than a decade, Ambiance had been her passion as she had worked relentlessly to foster the growth of downtown La Crosse. Whatever business would take over the space had large shoes to fill, and—quite literally—shoes were the answer.
After being inspired by her mother’s entrepreneurial spirit and with the knowledge she gained from serving as Ambiance’s accountant, Poukey and her business partner, Allison Krzych, decided to open their own elegantly decorated shoe store only a few short blocks from Ambiance. They had been in the process of looking for a new store location at the time of Callies’ health decline. Things seemed to fall into place as the two were able to move their equally successful store, Kick, to Ambiance’s location.
